Patrick makes great points about the charitable giving record (spreading the wealth, as it were) of the Democrats’ “Do as I say, not as I do” ticket, and its sharp contrast with John McCain:

Obama and Biden Refused to Spread Their Wealth
By Patrick Poole

Thinking about Barack Obama’s impromptu lecture to Joe “the Plumber” Wurzelbacher about his plans to “spread the wealth,” I wondered whether Obama was a practitioner of his own “spread the wealth” principles when he had the opportunity to do so, or whether he was the cheap political opportunist and redistributor of the wealth of others that he appeared to be.

Looking at Obama’s charitable giving in since 2000 based on his tax returns, we find that Obama consistently refused to follow his own advice to “spread the wealth” when he had the opportunity to do so. This is especially true in years when he made nearly $250,000 or more. Their contributions didn’t increase until Barack Obama’s extraordinary book deal helped make him a millionaire and Michelle Obama received nearly $200,000 raise in May 2005 when she assumed a new position with her employer as vice president of “community and external affairs” – coincidentally, just months after he husband joined the US Senate.

As the chart below shows (HT: TaxProf Blog, who has PDF links to all returns listed), from 2000-2004, Obama’s charitable giving averaged less than 1 percent:

In fact, during that 2000-2004 period Obama gave substantially less than the average family making more than $150,000, which averages giving of 2.2 percent of total income according to University of George Professor Russell James. And a study published in January by the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy found that nationwide in 2004 more than two-thirds of American households – the vast majority of which made significantly less than the $207,647 Obama made that year – still gave an average of over $2,000, or 3 percent of their income.

Obama’s running mate, Joe Biden, was even stingier about spreading his wealth. When his tax records were released in September, they revealed that over the past decade he had only donated an average of $369 each year. In 2007, his charitable giving was only $995, or 0.3 percent of income in a year when his tax returns reported $319,853 in income.

By comparison, John McCain gave more than one-quarter of his income in 2006 and 2007 (28.6 and 27.3 percent respectively). And according to the New York Observer, since 1998, he has donated royalties on his books totaling more than $1.8 million.

When Barack Obama and Joe Biden could voluntarily give more of their own income and had the means well beyond most Americans to do so, they refused. In the event that Barack Obama is elected President, however, he and his Democrat allies in Congress intend to force others with the full might of the US government to do what he refused to do on his own.

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#1, actually TUCC is on his list of 2007 charitable contribution in his return, which means that TUCC is in the above figures for 2000-2000 — or that he was tithing and not deducting all those years (no way).

Considering how stridently Wright’s TUCC systematically has begged for money week-in and week-out in its bulletins, the irony is pretty amazing. Maybe Wright gave him a politician’s pass.

[...] to life, liberty, and the pursuit of power happiness. Lest we forget, Barack Obama and Joe Biden do not like to spread their own wealth around… Looking at Obama’s charitable giving in since 2000 based on his tax returns, we find that [...]

is this article about obama didn’t practice what he preached or about obama didn’t give enough to the charity? what are the talking pts here, this article said obama did donate to charity and the amount of his donation weren’t big enough for him to talk about spreading the wealth. This article is much about of nothing, and stupid. didn’t know that charitable donation like personal income taxes, one must give more like tax base on your yearly income.

This article did not mention how much Mr Mcain earned his wife is wealthly so I know his income was twice the amount of Obama and Biden, also the more you make the more you give and less taxes you have to pay on that money. Also this article doesnt point out who anyone gave to except Mcain gave funds from his book, maybe I just missed in this article

I’m not surprised at the results. Obama and Biden and many of their counterparts are all too eager to spread the wealth around so long as it is not their own. They want to use the power of taking money for political advantage, again so long as it is not their money or if it is, that it is minimal.

[...] BizzyBlog » Patrick Poole Guest Post: Thinking about Barack Obama’s impromptu lecture to Joe “the Plumber” Wurzelbacher about his plans to “spread the wealth,” I wondered whether Obama was a practitioner of his own “spread the wealth” principles when he had the opportunity to do so, or whether he was the cheap political opportunist and redistributor of the wealth of others that he appeared to be. [...]

I doubt Senator Obama’s remark was a reference to Ayn Rand’s Virtue of Selfishness. Given the manner with which he made his remark, he is clearly ignorant that rational selfishness was shown to be a virtue about half a century ago.

His ignorance of the virtue of selfishness is not surprising. Given his altruist/collectivist premises, it’s pretty clear that he holds the ancient views of Nietzsche: the brute walking over corpses, the malevolent dog-eat-dog notion long ago utterly debunked.

Rational selfishness names a moral code of the highest order, requiring the strictest adherence to the values of reason, purpose and self-esteem, requiring uncompromising practice of the virtues of rationality, honesty, integrity, justice and independence, among others. In short, rational selfishness is, to paraphrase Miss Rand, the recognition that “only one’s own happiness is within one’s power to achieve.” Obama condemns this as wicked. No wonder he scoffs of the idea that selfishness is a virtue.

As astonishing is Obama’s claim that socialism is not the practice of government confiscating the money of those who’ve earned it and giving it to those who have not. Every tract on socialism/communism cites the distribution of wealth as central to its doctrine. Obama surely knows this. After all, he studied under the Communist teacher Alensky and was said to have been a star pupil. On top of his ignorance, is Obama also a liar?

[...] We find certain relatives that have been reported as not being cared for by Obama. And when charitable giving is factored in we have to ask: Who is more inclinded to make selfishness a virtue? Maybe Obama [...]

Anyone here think we will have a real revolution or what? People are talking all over America. Obama can easily pull off the scenario on the page that I linked as my website. Anyone here think he can’t? Now he even has called for a National Civilian Police force as powerful as the military to help patrol our streets. I hear the boots marching.

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